Aims

The aims of the ESSR outreach program are as follows:
– to fulfil one of the primary objectives of the ESSR in advancing the knowledge about the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders and to provide a European forum for education and research of musculoskeletal radiology
– to provide education in European countries where the access to high quality teaching in musculoskeletal radiology may be limited by financial or geographical constraints
– to support the educational activities of local groups or societies in these countries and to enhance the future cooperation of these groups or societies and the ESSR

QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Outreach Program Authorities

All decisions about the ESSR outreach program are under the authority of the ESSR executive committee. The current president-elect and the vice-president serve as the chairperson and co-chairperson of the program. The ESSR subcommittees are asked to propose locations and topics. Proposals can also be made by individual ESSR members to office@essr.org.

Submissions should be sent to the chairpersons and the ESSR office until 2 weeks before the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) or the ESSR Annual Meeting where all proposals will be presented in the Executive Committee meeting.

2015

2018

2018

2019

2017

2019

2019

Location & Local Organizer

Program content and digital lecture notes

A typical outreach program should be oriented on 2 – 3 learning objectives by taking into account the educational level of radiologists working in the local setting and the sustainable improvements that should be achieved with this course. This should be communicated to the ESSR speakers at an early stage of program planning.

The program should consist of 1 or 2 days of instruction by 2 – 4 ESSR speakers and, optionally, 2 – 4 local speakers. The program should be a mixture of didactic lectures to the whole assembly and smaller tutorial or practical (e.g. ultrasound courses) sessions with smaller groups of participants. The preferred course language is English. Depending on the location of the venue and the composition of the faculty, the program can be held in other languages as well.

All speakers have to be advised to cite and discuss during their presentations the official recommendations and statements of the ESSR as published on the ESSR homepage and/or in the official journals of our society.

If digital material (lecture notes, e-syllabus) for an outreach course is available, it may be published on the educational platform of the ESSR homepage after review.

Choice and role of lecturers

The initiators of an individual outreach program should propose a team of 2-4 ESSR speakers to be agreed by the chairpersons. The following should be taken into account when choosing the speakers:
– each speaker should be an ESSR member
– each speaker should have recognized skills as a teacher
– the expertise of the speakers within the team should complement each other
– preference should be given to speakers with local knowledge or specific language skills relevant to the country of the venue

The faculty can be expanded by 2-4 local speakers to be proposed by the local organizer and to be agreed by the chairpersons. Local speakers should be experienced musculoskeletal radiologists with adequate educational skills.

One of the ESSR speakers should be appointed as the lead lecturer by the chairpersons. It will be the lead lecturer´s responsibility to act as a liaison with the local organizer and the ESSR, especially with the chairpersons or other members of the ESSR subcommittees that match with the content of the course program in order to get support for the lectures and tutorials.

The lead speaker, the local organizer and optionally another co-author have to send a report after the end of the course to the chairpersons and the ESSR office. For better sustainability of the outreach courses, the official part of this report will be published in the ESSR newsletter. It should contain:

1 to 3 educational and/or scientific highlights of the course program, potential positive influences for improving the radiologists’ professional performance in the country where the course was held,

if available, information about the social program in a way that touristic attractions or other interesting facts about the country and the local culture are shown,

1 to 3 instructive photos of the course,

The authors’ portrait photos),

The unofficial part of the report should contain information about the number of participants, the list of countries the participants came from, results from an evaluation if available, and suggestions for further improvement.

A presentation of the national musculoskeletal society or group in the country, where the course is held, may also be published in the ESSR newsletter with the intention to support the educational and scientific activities in the country chosen for the outreach course and to enhance the future cooperation with the ESSR. It may contain information about the role of musculoskeletal radiologists within the local healthcare and the political system, radiology training schemes, imaging equipment, and some general information about the country and the local settings (history, culture, economy etc.) as far as of relevance to the imaging sciences.

Accreditation

Each outreach course should be included in the ESSR diploma according to the procedure displayed at the ESSR homepage. CME accreditation should be attempted in cooperation with the ESSR office.

Advertising

The ESSR announces the outreach courses on the ESSR homepage and via the newsletter, once the Outreach Program coordinators will have approved the program. If printed material (flyers) is available and contains the ESSR logo, it can be displayed at the booths of our society during ESR and the ESSR meetings.

The local organizers should inform the participants of their outreach course about the activities of the ESSR via weblinks in the program and/or printed material displayed onsite.

Budget and Reimbursement

The budget for the outreach program will be included in the treasurer´s annual budget presented to and agreed by the executive committee and the general assembly. The ESSR will support 2 programs organized each year with a maximum expense of € 10.000 per program.
The grant will be used to cover the ESSR speakers´ travel expenses (economy class airfare, travel to and from airport, airport parking, visa applications, etc.) and costs for hotel accommodation (up to 3 nights). Speakers should submit an expenses claim together with the original receipts to the ESSR office within 2 months of the end of the outreach program.DOWNLOAD EXPENSES CLAIM FORM for speakers here.
The executive committee might individually decide to compensate for potential financial disadvantages to the local organizer with a sum of up to € 5.000 (50% of the calculated costs for speaker reimbursement), if an entirely planned program has to be cancelled due to some unexpected event.